Alien: Romulus is the latest addition to the famous and legendary Alien film franchise and is directed by Fede Alvarez from Don’t Breathe and 2013’s Evil Dead. The movie follows a group of young colonizers hoping to escape their current home on a mining colony far from earth. After discovering the abandoned space station Romulus and Remus they see an opportunity to travel to another planet. However, upon arriving the station the crew has no idea the horror that awaits them. Alien is one of my favorite film series ever made. The first two films 1979’s Alien and 1986’s Aliens are trailblazers in the sci-fi horror genre and has what I consider the most iconic alien monster in all of fiction. However, the films that followed haven’t been consist in quality. When this film was announced bringing it back to its horror roots from the original film with modern horror director Fede Alvarez behind the camera I was intrigued and the first trailer got me hooked. After watching it I’m happy to say it was a major improvement from the previous films and easily became my top horror movie of the year so far.
This movie’s strength was in the suspense. As soon as the main cast of human characters make touchdown with the Xenomorphs I was thoroughly engaged and on the edge of my seat awaiting the aliens to strike. What helped the suspense was the incredible visual and practical effects on display. The Xenomorphs, face huggers, and chest bursters shown all looked and felt real. Which added another layer of horror behind the dread and suspense, only using CG when it was deemed necessary. The setting of this movie was also great. The abandoned space station was a great setting for an Alien movie. Every hallway and corridor looked like it had a story to tell and created an atmosphere of darkness and claustrophobia. It also helped that the sets were also real and not a lazy attempt at a green screen.
This movie is a lot like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Ghostbusters: Afterlife. That being a new film from an existing IP but with a new cast of characters in a plot that’s very similar to previous installments. In this case very similar to the 1979 original, filled with callbacks and references to previous movies. Which is not a bad thing at all, especially since the previous Alien movies haven’t been the most well-received and this was the shot in the arm this series needed. Lastly the third act of this movie was insane to watch. It introduced something that in had been done in the past but was done much better and it’s when the scares really ramped up.
The only major complaint I had with this movie was outside of the two main characters Rain and Andy, played by Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson, I didn’t have a strong attachment to the human characters. The movie didn’t allow the audience to get to know them more and attached them in a way that didn’t feel superficial, and the short runtime didn’t help it. Also, the movie reused a certain a character from the first film, whose actor has already passed, and the facial CG and visuals looked really off. But luckily all these problems didn’t derail the experience for me.
Overall, this was a great horror experience that any horror and Alien fans should not miss. It has great suspense, scares, practical effects and setting to keep any fans engaged with great leads that carry the emotional core of the film. Despite the weak supporting cast, it does not hinder it in anyway. I give Alien: Romulus an 8/10